Often as the Devas figure in early Buddhist stories, the significance of their appearance nearly always lies in their relations with the Buddha or his disciples.  Of mere mythology, such as the dealings of Brahma and Indra with other gods, there is little.  In fact the gods, though freely invoked as accessories, are not taken seriously[718], and there are some extremely curious passages in which Gotama seems to laugh at them, much as the sceptics of the eighteenth century laughed at Jehovah.  Thus in the Kevaddha sutta[719] he relates how a monk who was puzzled by a metaphysical problem applied to various gods and finally accosted Brahma himself in the presence of all his retinue.  After hearing the question, which was Where do the elements cease and leave no trace behind?  Brahma replies, “I am the Great Brahma, the Supreme, the Mighty, the All-seeing, the Ruler, the Lord of all, the Controller, the Creator, the Chief of all, appointing to each his place, the Ancient of days, the Father of all that are and are to be.”  “But,” said the monk, “I did not ask you, friend, whether you were indeed all you now say, but I ask you where the four elements cease and leave no trace.”  Then the Great Brahma took him by the arm and led him aside and said, “These gods think I know and understand everything.  Therefore I gave no answer in their presence.  But I do not know the answer to your question and you had better go and ask the Buddha.”  Even more curiously ironical is the account given of the origin of Brahma[720].  There comes a time when this world system passes away and then certain beings are reborn in the World of Radiance and remain there a long time.  Sooner or later, the world system begins to evolve again and the palace of Brahma appears, but it is empty.  Then some being whose time is up falls from the World of Radiance and comes to life in the palace and remains there alone.  At last he wishes for company, and it so happens that other beings whose time is up fall from the World of Radiance and join him.  And the first being thinks that he is Great Brahma, the Creator, because when he felt lonely and wished for companions other beings appeared.  And the other beings accept this view.  And at last one of Brahma’s retinue falls from that state and is born in the human world and, if he can remember his previous birth, he reflects that he is transitory but that Brahma still remains and from this he draws the erroneous conclusion that Brahma is eternal.

He who dared to represent Brahma (for which name we might substitute Allah or Jehovah) as a pompous deluded individual worried by the difficulty of keeping up his position had more than the usual share of scepticism and irony.  The compilers of such discourses regarded the gods as mere embellishments, as gargoyles and quaint figures in the cathedral porch, not as saints above the altar.  The mythology and cosmology associated with early Buddhism are really extraneous.  The Buddha’s teaching is simply the four truths